1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for pushing an e-mail to a portable terminal in an e-mail system, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for notifying a portable terminal of reception of a new e-mail using a message server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rapid development of portable terminals has allowed portable phones capable of wireless voice communication and information exchange to become necessities of the everyday life. Early portable terminals were known just for their portability and capability of wireless communications. However, as technologies for the portable terminal are developed and the wireless Internet is introduced, an application range of the portable terminal is continuously expanding, for example, from simple voice communication and schedule management to image capture using a mounted digital camera, a satellite broadcasting service, games, web surfing through the wireless Internet and an e-mail service.
In particular, modern people widely use the e-mail service for information transfer. Some users of portable terminals receive an e-mail using the portable terminals for checking the e-mail immediately. A conventional e-mail system for checking e-mail using a portable terminal will be described below.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a conventional e-mail system for pushing an e-mail to a portable terminal. Referring to FIG. 1, an e-mail client 140, e.g., a portable terminal, periodically performs a polling operation, which is performed to determine if an e-mail server 100 receives a new e-mail in the conventional e-mail system using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), or an Internet Message Access Protocol version 4 (IMAP4). Then, when the e-mail server 100 receives a new e-mail, the e-mail client 140 receives the new e-mail.
However, in order to use the above-described e-mail service, after the e-mail client 140 is connected to the e-mail server 100 by using personal information, e.g., an e-mail account ID and password, the polling operation must be performed. That is, a user of the e-mail client 140 does not know if a new e-mail is received before the polling operation is performed, and frequent performance of the polling operation consumes the battery power of the e-mail client 140.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating another conventional e-mail system for pushing an e-mail to a portable terminal. Referring to FIG. 2, a push mail server 210 periodically determines if an e-mail server 200 receives a new e-mail using the SMTP, the POP3, or the IMAP4. When the e-mail server 200 receives a new e-mail, the push mail server 210 pushes the new e-mail to an e-mail client 240 that is connected to the push mail sever 210 whenever the e-mail server 200 receives a new e-mail.
However, in this case, the e-mail client 240, e.g., a portable terminal, must be continuously connected to the push mail sever 210 and the battery power of the e-mail client 240 is consumed significantly. Further, the e-mail client 240 cannot receive the new e-mail when the communication connection between the e-mail client 240 and the push mail server 210 is interrupted. In addition, in order to receive a new e-mail from the push mail server 210, additional expense is required.